THROUGH THE GORGE

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 109, 1 February 1941, Page 16

THROUGH THE GORGE

(Some More Holiday Notes by Gloria (15), Wellington.)

motored through Waikauae Gorge and it was like passing through one lovely mass of unspoiled bush. We saw every variety of fern and native tree and noticed many strange flowers and trees. We found a straight, tall rimu, a tree I love, with its slender pale green fingers drooping to the earth.

When we reached the top of the hill we wore ascending, we stood on rhe side of the road and gazed past green fields till we could see the white line of the sea in the distance. So as not to miss any of the beauty of the bush we walked down the rotti for a way. Although it seemed a pity to pick them I soon had my arms full of pink-tipped fern leaves and yelloworange lacapedium with which to decorate the house. I noticed that the bank by the roadside was covered with different mosses and dotted with tree seedling. Trickling out of the rock under the bank was a tiny rivulet of clear, icy-fresh water and it looked like a miniature or fairy landscape. We had tea on a grassy patch by the road and when we finished we could see the mist descending over the purple hills like a white veil. We washed the plates and our hands and faces in a nearby stream. It was so cold that we felt all tingley and refreshed. After piling into the car we drove homeward in the darkening evening.

Once our headlights lit up a hare sitting on the road before us. Caught by the sudden glare it bounded up and raced ahead. We leaned forward, fully expecting it to be knocked but it ran on dodging all over the road.

At the end of an exciting minute we came to a break in the hedge and the hare dashed through.